Climate factor for small-basin flood frequency

Water Resources Bulletin
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Abstract

A climate factor, CT, (T = 2-, 25-, and 100-year recurrence intervals) that delineates regional trends in small-basin flood frequency was derived using data from 71 long-term rainfall record sites. Values of CT at these sites were developed by a regression analysis that related rainfall-runoff model estimates of T-year floods to a sample set of 50 model calibrations. CT was regionalized via kriging to develop maps depicting its geographic variation for a large part of the United States east of the 105th meridian. Kriged estimates of CT and basin-runoff characteristics were used to compute regionalized T-year floods for 200 small drainage basins. Observed T-year flood estimates also were developed for these sites. Regionalized floods are shown to account for a large percentage of the variability in observed flood estimates with coefficients of determination ranging from 0.89 for 2-year floods to 0.82 for 100-year floods. The relative importance of the factors comprising regionalized flood estimates is evaluated in terms of scale (size of drainage area), basin-runoff characteristics (rainfall-runoff model parameters), and climate (CT).
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Climate factor for small-basin flood frequency
Series title Water Resources Bulletin
DOI 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1990.tb01395.x
Volume 26
Issue 4
Year Published 1990
Language English
Publisher American Water Resources Association
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Water Resources Bulletin
First page 577
Last page 586
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